>> two d.c. neighborhoods have worried about flooding during of major storm for years, but that is all about to change. tomorrow d.c. mayor vincent gray and other officials are expected to break ground on a major infrastructure project. it will help prevent flooding in bloomingdale and ledroit park. fox 5's maureen umeh joins us with the preview. >> i an expensive project that involves a lot of -- it's an expensive project that involves a lot of underground tunnels, expected to cost $40 million more than previously planned but is expected to provide relief much sooner. it's already started at the intersection of rhode island avenue and first vote northwest, work crews digging. they're making room for tunnels 6 blocks in length that will eventually be able to store 6 million gallons of stormwater and sewage. ward 5 council member kenyon mcduffie has been one of the main d.c. officials pushing the plan for his ward. >> what you're seeing is an

unprecedented level of attention and resources focused on the flooding that's been occurring in bloomingdale. >> reporter: the work is expected to help stop this from happening, flash floods that submerge parts of bloomingdale and ledroit park time and time again last summer. >> this particular component is going to bring some of the structural changes to the corridor and have a direct impact on the flooding that's occurring over the summer and the things that have occurred for decades in the bloomingdale and ledroit park neighborhood. >> reporter: this also involves converting facilities on the old mcmillan location site into storage tanks capable of holding 3 million gallons of runoff. the entire project is expected to cost $40 million more than previously plans. council member duffy says another component is reimbursement of homeowners for damage by adding 30 cents to monthly water bills. the bill has passed first reading. >> it has been pretty controversial, but those folks have been seeking relief for quite some time now.

we've got folks who have been devastated with property damage. >> reporter: it's a multi- pronged project that's expected to take several years to complete, but in the end it should help bring long term flood relief to weary bloomingdale and ledroit park residents. the mcmillan storage tanks could be completed by 2014 and t first street tunnel by 2016. >> residents are happy about that. thank you. now a news alert from george washington university, students and staff there on guard following an attempted sexual assault and five burglaries all within the last 36 hours. security is now ratched up at the two campus buildings -- ramped up at the two campus buildings where the crimes occurred, rice hall and ivory tower residence hall. police have released surveillance photos of two suspects accused of going room to room stealing laptops and cell phones. the edge on virginia tonight, someone attacked and sexually assaulted a hotel clerk last night in woodbridge, the third assault inthree

weeks at or near motels in that part of prince william county. fox 5's john henrehan has the latest. >> reporter: shortly after 10:00 wednesday night police were called to the econolodge on gordon boulevard in woodbridge, a two-story motel with exterior doors and stairwells. a 33-year-old female clerk working in the office received a phone call from a guest who said he was locked out of his room. >> she was walking up the stairwell and encountered an unknown man. the man displayed knife and forced her to the room where she was called to to let someone in. once there she was knocked unconscious, rendered unconscious and she was sexually -- she awoke to him sexually assaulting her. >> reporter: although the motel has security cameras because the assailant was wearing a mask a quick survey of the video has not yielded information to help them establish a suspect description. there have been other incidents at or near motels in woodbridge. on november 17th at the roadway

inn on route 1 on a plot of land behind the motel a woman walking a dog around 8:20 in the morning told police she was grabbed on her shoulder by a man. the 46-year-old woman pulled away. the man fled. she described her assailant as a long haired hispanic male between 30 and 35 years old with an unshaved and dirty face. this rather odd looking computer generated suspect sketch tried to capture the dirt on the face. on november 17th this man was wearing a lime green jacket with blue lining and a red hooded sweat shirt. one day later on november 18th at 9:20 in the morning back at the econolodge a 39-year-old housekeeper says an unknown man walked into the room she was cleaning, closed the door and grabbed her. she resisted and man fled. that time the security cameras did capture suspect images which quickly led to the arrest of 28-year-old clarence olowu

of al. he remains -- olowu. he remains in jail. one suspect is in custody and two are at lark. police in prince william county are hoping a -- large. police in prince william county are hoping a tipster comes forward with information. police in fredericksburg say the man in this photo took explosives to a bank yesterday morning to try to blow up an atm. police are trying to find him tonight. the explosive device scorched and damaged the atm but did not break it. if you have any information about the incident or the man, call police in fredericksburg. to drivers who text behind the vehicle, you'll soon face tougher penalties in the state of virginia. there will be harsher penalties for texting while driving as part of the 2013 legislative agenda. currently it's a civil offense, but the commission wants to

make it as punishable as reckless driving. christmas came to the white house tonight, the first family lighting the national christmas tree in front of a huge crowd on the ellipse. we have video. take a look. >> three, two, one. [ cheering and applause ] >> with that it is all lit up. this marks the 90th year for the tree lighting ceremony. singers babyface and colbie caillat helped moderate the night before christmas. >> twas the night before christmas when all through the house not a creature was stirring not even a mouse. >> the stockings were hung by the chimney with care in hopes that st. nicholas would soon be there. >> this is the third tree in as many seasons. last winter a storm knocked over the tree. then its replacement failed to

take hold. president obama joked tonight this shows nobody's job is safe in washington. great night out there. tonight's ceremony happened on one of the coldest days of the month. sue palka is tracking our forecast tonight. >> that's right, only in the 40s today, this in contrast to the 70s earlier this week. we have another cold one tonight and a moderation in temperatures headed your way in time for the weekend. i'll have the details. you guys will want to stick around for this, the battle of the beltway heating up. hear from two maryland lawmakers in a redskins/ravens battle. they've got a bet going on and one of them is clearing up rumors about the redskins moving back to d.c. we'll be right back. >> this is fox 5 news edge at 11:00.  [ female announcer ] for those who love sweets,,

your season is here. let's just call it the baking time of year. you need special ingredients. you need the staples. that's a given. you need safeway sugar for just $1.97. and that magic thing that makes everyone want another -- only $2.99 for land o'lakes butter. and when hands get messy, quite surely they'll say, "yum! wow! yay! what a sweeter holiday." safeway. ingredients for life.

you won't take our future. aids affects us all. even babies. chevron is working to stop mother-to-child transmission. our employees and their families are part of the fight. and we're winning. at chevron nigeria, we haven't had a reported case in 12 years. aids is strong. aids is strong. but we are stronger. and aids... ♪

aids is going to lose. aids is going to lose. ♪ this sunday's battle of the beltways will have appear extra special meaning from -- an extra special meaning from some local leaders. ken oldman, a ravens fan offered a wager to rushern baker who is a redskins fan. we'll let them face off, but first here's the challenge. >> if somehow you somehow sneak a victory, which i can't imagine happening even though you got lucky this past week against the giants, i will proudly wear an rg3 jersey for an entire day, but when we come down to fedex field and beat you this sun, you will take my

favorite jersey of had -- my jersey and wear the purple jersey in prince george's county. >> gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> good to be here. >> mr. baker, i'll start with you. i hear you're now being called rb3. what's your response to mr. uhlman's challenge? >> first i want to thank my good friend for his nsightful thinking that his team is going to win. this is rb3 not rg3. we accept the challenge. what i want to do is up the ante. how about the person who loses will not only wear the team's jersey, but also sings in your case will sing hail to the redskins while picking up trash

along county roads. how about trash that? >> mr. uhlman, he just upped the ante. what the your response? >> i'm so confident in the ravens victory this sun at fedex field that -- sunday at fedex field that you're on. whatever you can come up with you're on. i'm not even going to have to begin to learn hail to the redskins. we're going to win. it's so unusual these days for redskins fans to be, you know, thinking about redskin games meaning something in december that they're getting a little carried away with themselves and i understand that. >> hold on. i'm going to have to keep this civil. let me say for our viewers who don't realize this is only the fifth time these teams have actually met. your ravens won three of the first four. mr. baker, what does the team need to do to win this time around, the redskins? >> we're feeling really gd. in fact, you know, rg3 was at the wizards game and i was at the wizards game and they pulled off an upset over the

heat. so we're feeling really lucky on sunday that we'll do the same thing with the ravens. i think the redskins or a roll playing well. we're ready and prepared. >> mr. baker, before we let you guys go, can you clear up the rumors floating around town that the redskins will be moving out of prince george's county to a new stadium in the district? >> no. we feel really good about having the redskin organization in prince george's county. they're a great community partner and so we look for a long partnership with them and their organization. i feel really good about what they've been able to contribute not only on the field but in the community. >> so they're not moving is what you're saying. >> that is what i'm saying. >> all right. howard county executive and ravens fan ken uhlman, final word from you? >> to my good friend rushern baker, doing a great job in prince george's county. this is fun to get a little regionalism going. we're great partners. we're having some fun with this. it will be a great game sunday. thanks for having us. >> the battle of the beltway

underway. best to both of you and by the way, let us know when you settle this bet because we want to be there for it. will. >> wouldn't have you miss it. >> thanks very much. this holiday and this football season we have helpful tips to prevent you from get a hangover. >> also mark your calendars for free shipping day. we thomas has tonight's fox 5 top five. >> up first tonight help for those holiday hangovers, at no. 5, don't smoke while you drink. it may make your hangover worse. researchers studied college students and found students who smoked on the same days think drank a lot were more likely to suffer a hangover. no. 4, watch your budget this holiday season. credit educators suggest using just a few credit cards to avoid losing track of spending. they say use one rewards card to pay the bill as quickly as you can or use a few low interest cards for purchases you don't pay off right away.

no. 3, speaking of shopping free shipping day is december 17th. that is a monday. more than 900 merchants have agreed to offer free shipping that day with delivery by christmas eve and new retailers are joining in daily. no. 2, get ready to pay to access the washington post online. according to the wall street journal, insiders say it's going to happen in 2013. the post website will allow users to read a certain number of stories for free before charging a subscription fee. newspaper subscription prices are also expected to increase. no. 1, we invite you to hips feed the area's needy. our -- help us feed the area's needy. our annual stuff a truck drive begins tomorrow morning. we'll be live at four giant locations and 12 other stores will be accepting donations. you can find the exact locations on www.myfoxdc.com. i'm going to be at the greenbrier giant center in fairfax all evening long. so come on out and that is tonight's fox 5 top five.

let's pin sue palka down and talk about the weather for tomorrow's stuff a truck event. we'll be at giant food stores from 4:30 in the morning all the way through our evening shows. >> nothing we can't handle tomorrow, maybe a little warmer than today, not very much sun. maybe a couple spotty showers especially in the morning. >> no reason not to come out. >> that's right. nothing that will make it difficult to show up and it's such a waffle cause. it doesn't take much -- a wonderful cause. it doesn't take much effort to put a few groceries in those containers and it will make a big difference for families in our area, so much hunger even in this area. we're keeping an eye out on the clouds because there could be a couple light showers. we'll talk about that but also remember we talked about the christmas tree lighting and it was fun. i was down there tonight. i mentioned all the performers that were there and left out my favorite one, james taylor. >> that's right. >> oh, my gosh, he is magnificent.

it reminded me of how terrific is. there's a shot of everybody at the end as they did kind of a finale where everybody took a solo and the whole group sang. let me tell you, that is some excellent performing artists in our area and those tickets were free and they got grabbed up. the national christmas tree is lit. it will be lit of night between now and january 1st. get out and enjoy it. temperature-wise it's getting kind of chilly and off to our west we have a couple showers showing up, gaithersburg 32 degrees, frederick down to 30. we've got to watch this moisture and make sure it doesn't get too much closer. let's put it all in motion. there it goes again. there are only the spottiest of showers showing up out to our westful we'll watch that close by, but -- west. we'll watch that closely, but on futurecast around 10 a.m. it's suggesting there might be lighter showers around. so keep an umbrella handy during the early morning hours. we'll watch especially to 4th

and west to make sure we don't -- to our north and west to make sure we don't have any freezing rain issues with this light rain coming in. we're hoping that won't be a big concern. there have been a couple freezing rain advisories that were issued up through pennsylvania. friday night off to our west still a few showers around but fairly spotty. we think saturday will be dry. we'll probably get clearing skies later in the day, but into the weekend and we'll continue to find that there will be a couple showers here and there around the area. in terms of winds we've been pretty lucky with that today, but we are going to continue to watch those winds and hope we're going to see lighter winds around tomorrow. so we are going to show you your fox 5 accuweather seven- day forecast here in f -- here if it comes up and i really hope it will. computers are being stubborn today and that is because we put in an upgrade. i going to click this seven-day

up right now. if 1 degrees tomorrow, saturday 63 -- 51 degrees tomorrow, saturday 63 degrees, monday 64. this is really a bargain for december. we don't have anything colder than 50 degrees on this seven- day forecast, not bad at all. that's it for weather. i'll bet you're glad. let's send it over to scott smith for your sports report. this is the verizon sports desk with scott smith. >> when rg3 and the skins clash with that traditionally tough baltimore defense sunday, some of the names may be the same, but the numbers aren't so raven. for the first time in the better part of a decade baltimore's d is not a top 10 unite, not even a top 20 unit -- unit, not even a top 20 unit. ray lewis is back at practice but still out of games. terrell suggs is iffy, but with ed reed you always have to be wary. last week reed grabbed his fourth interception of the season against the steelers and

the 61st of his careerful he's one of the best in the game and rg3 -- career. he's one of the best in the game and rg3 is quite aware of his talents. >> they've always had great personnel and then ed reed, he's the top of that defense and with ray lewis being out he is the leader of that defense. so he does a good job with everything. he covers a lot of ground. he tackles well. he's got good ball skills. you definitely have to be aware of where he's at. the burgundy and gold d has stepped up the last three games and haven't surrendered a touchdown in the nine of the last 12 quarters, linebacker rob jackson with great game monday night, but it comes down to jim haslett's unit holding teams to field goals instead of touchdowns. >> you can't let them in the end zone. they get in that end zone. that's how you lose games. you got to hold them to the field goal, hold them out of the end zone no matter what. you just give us one more blade

of grass and we'll fight like nothing left. >> sunday at 1:00 will be the fifth meeting between the two teams. the redskins have but one win in that series. coming up bad news from the nhl and a very exclusive company kobe bryant joins us from the lakers, that next. hi, i'm ruth ann darling, a did not of air force civilian stationed here in -- department of air force civilian stationed here in kabul afghanistan. i'd like to say love you and miss you to my mom and dad in arlington, virginia. happy holidays.  [ kitt ] you know what's impressive?

a talking car. but i'll tell you what impresses me. a talking train. this ge locomotive can tell you exactly where it is, what it's carrying, while using less fuel. delivering whatever the world needs, when it needs it. ♪ after all, what's the point of talking if you don't have something important to say? ♪

what had been promising discussions between the nhl and the players association broke down today. the league rejected the players' latest proposal and they will not be meeting tomorrow either. a disappointing twist clearly. commissioner gary bettman said, "we are what we are as horrible as it is," but there was some hockey at the verizon center, the hershey bears trying to give the home fans something to cheer about and they did. hershey taking on the norfolk admirals tied at 1-1 in the 3rd. there's the 2-1 win in front of the great house at the phone booth. last night lakers in new orleans, nba commissioner david

stern giving kobe bryant a pregame congratulatory shake. kobe was on his game last night touting 29 points, thus becoming the fifth man in the history of the game and the youngest player to ever tally 30,000 points in a career. kobe joins kareem abdul-jabbar, karl malone, michael jordan and wilt chamberlain. joining that list of all time greats is not lost on bryant. >> yeah. that's pretty awesome. these are players i respect tremendously and obviously grew up idolizing them watching and learned a great deal from them. so it's awesome. e. in college hoops tonight american beat umbc in double overtime and howard loses to william & mary. shawn is back to wrap up the edge right after this. this holiday, share everything. share "not even close."

share "you owe me..." share "just right." the share everything plan. sharable data across 10 devices with unlimited talk and text. get a droid razr m by motorola for $49.99. so, the 5.3-liter v-8 silverado can tow up to 9,600 pounds? 315 horsepower. what's that in reindeer power? [ laughing ] [ stops laughing ] [ male announcer ] chevy's giving more. this holiday season, trade up to get the 2012 chevy silverado all-star edition for 0% apr financing for 60 months plus $2,000 cash allowance or get a total value of $9,000.

 girl: well, inside the brewer, there's a giant staircase, and the room is filled with all these different kinds of coffee. actually, i just press this button. brew what you love, simply. keurig.

we're back now taking the edge off tonight with a viral video that makes a little fun of you smartphone photographers. take a look. ♪ in this instagram it's been inside of him started out as a lemon tart then my phone went and made it art ♪ . >> the couple's featured in the video singing about stereo typical instagram subjects like food, babies and all those self- indulgent pictures just wanted to show how ridiculous we've become about documenting our everyday lives. why not? it's fun. thanks for joining us tonight.

we'll see you tomorrow, everybody. have a good 1. >> fox 5 news isn't over. go to www.myfoxdc.com now for news, weather and entertainment updates. fox 5 news is washington's best news on air and online at www.myfoxdc.com brought to you by verizon 4g lte. you won't take my life. you won't take our future. aids affects us all. even babies. chevron is working to stop mother-to-child transmission. our employees and their families are part of the fight. and we're winning. at chevron nigeria, we haven't had a reported case in 12 years.